PROGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT FROM STUDIES WITH NONRANDOMIZED TREATMENT ASSIGNMENT

被引:6
作者
KIEMENEY, LALM
VERBEEK, ALM
VANHOUWELINGEN, JC
机构
[1] DUTCH CANC SOC,AMSTERDAM,NETHERLANDS
[2] LEIDEN UNIV,DEPT MED STAT,2300 RA LEIDEN,NETHERLANDS
关键词
PROGNOSIS; TREATMENT; ASSIGNMENT; OBSERVATION; RANDOMIZATION; BIAS; POWER;
D O I
10.1016/0895-4356(94)90005-1
中图分类号
R19 [保健组织与事业(卫生事业管理)];
学科分类号
摘要
In clinical practice, prognostic factors are primarily used to identify and select patients with a relatively poor prognosis who may need more aggressive treatment in order to improve their prognosis. Preferably, assessment of the ability of prognostic factors to distinguish these high risk patients from low risk patients should take place in the absence of such prognosis-modifying adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant therapy may dilute the effect of prognosticators (covariate-treatment interactions) and such a situation may go unnoticed in tests for interaction because of their low statistical power. These undetected covariate-treatment interactions will bias the estimated effects of prognostic factors in both studies with randomized and non-randomized treatment assignment but the bias will usually be greater in studies when treatment was not randomized. For the evaluation of prognostic;factors, it is therefore argued that the study population should be restricted to patients who do not receive adjuvant therapy. This restriction might result in a less powerful analysis, but it carries the advantage that undetectable biases are avoided. Non-random treatment assignment will not invalidate this restriction analysis provided that all the prognostic factors on which treatment choice was based, are known and incorporated into the analysis.
引用
收藏
页码:241 / 247
页数:7
相关论文
共 14 条
[1]  
BYAR DP, 1981, 26 JAHR TAG GMDS NEW, P528
[2]   CAUTIONS IN THE USE OF PRELIMINARY-TEST ESTIMATORS - COMMENT [J].
GREENLAND, S .
STATISTICS IN MEDICINE, 1989, 8 (06) :669-673
[3]   CAUSAL INFERENCE IN RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES [J].
HOLLAND, PW ;
RUBIN, DB .
EVALUATION REVIEW, 1988, 12 (03) :203-231
[4]   PROGNOSTIC FACTORS ANALYSIS IN CLINICAL ONCOLOGY - HANDLE WITH CARE [J].
MARSONI, S ;
VALSECCHI, MG .
ANNALS OF ONCOLOGY, 1991, 2 (04) :245-247
[5]  
Miettinen O S, 1983, Stat Med, V2, P267, DOI 10.1002/sim.4780020222
[6]  
Rosenbaum P. R., 1987, STAT SCI, V2, P292, DOI DOI 10.1214/SS/1177013232
[7]   THE ROLE OF KNOWN EFFECTS IN OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES [J].
ROSENBAUM, PR .
BIOMETRICS, 1989, 45 (02) :557-569
[8]   THE BIAS DUE TO INCOMPLETE MATCHING [J].
ROSENBAUM, PR ;
RUBIN, DB .
BIOMETRICS, 1985, 41 (01) :103-116
[9]   FROM ASSOCIATION TO CAUSATION IN OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES - THE ROLE OF TESTS OF STRONGLY IGNORABLE TREATMENT ASSIGNMENT [J].
ROSENBAUM, PR .
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION, 1984, 79 (385) :41-48
[10]   THE CENTRAL ROLE OF THE PROPENSITY SCORE IN OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES FOR CAUSAL EFFECTS [J].
ROSENBAUM, PR ;
RUBIN, DB .
BIOMETRIKA, 1983, 70 (01) :41-55